McDonalds launches '24 hours of joy'

Tuesday 24 March 2015 - Veebs Sabharwal

The world is about to see McDonald’s biggest global marketing drive since its “I’m lovin’ it” campaign in 2004.

Today, the food giant is launching a marketing campaign to provide 24 hours of joy. In a creative effort to improve on a worldwide decline in its fast food sales, 24 cities will experience McDonald’s one day advertising campaign, which comes after the food retailer reported its worst sales performance in a decade, and lost its Chief Executive to car parts dealer Halfords yesterday.

The company has formulated something to suit the tastes of 24 cities, in 24 countries, in 24 hours. This morning, the “imlovinit24” campaign started in Sydney with a 7m wide coffee cup in Sydney filled with balls for commuters to dive into and in the Philippines, McDonalds gifted drive-thru customers with a free breakfast. In London at around 4pm today, pop star Jessie J will host a surprise gig on a double decker bus for Brits to enjoy.

The global marketing drive will end in the US with a free concert by singer Ne-YO who will sing a “Lovin’ anthem composed of crowdsourced lyrics”.

The advertising push comes after McDonald’s reported its first fall in sales in 12 years. In January, the Big Mac maker reported a 14% fall in annual profits to $4.7bn and there hasn’t been a positive sales quarter in its (home) US market since 2013.

In March the company commented on the “urgent need to evolve with today’s consumers”. Matt Biesipel, Senior Director-Global Brand Development for McDonalds said today’s campaign is the company’s way of seeking to connect with young people. To reach that audience, he cited that McDonald’s is working to evolve into more of a content producer, as opposed to a large advertiser that buys massive amounts of traditional media.

Today’s consumers are “moving across screens,” particularly millennials. “We have to try different things. Some thing work out well, some don’t. Part of our culture of continuous improvement, and with this we’re trying new methods we’ve never tried before” Biesipel added.